Chapter 16, intro to 17

Today I read chapter 16 in Alma. It is a pretty interesting chapter, and a quick read. I also read the beginning of 17. Starting in 17 will start "an account of the sons of Mosiah, who rejected their rights to the kingdom for the word of God, and went up to the land of Nephi to preach to the Lamanites." What a great example to latter-day missionaries that have a difficult time putting their life on hold for two years to go on a mission! I hope that my boys (if I have any) will be excited to go on missions and that it won't be something they struggle with. I am excited to read these next few chapters.

Ensign Article

Since we were camping the last 2 days, I brought the Ensign with me and was able to read the First Presidency Message, "That He May Write upon Our Hearts" by Henry B. Eyring.

I don't know what my deal is lately, but I almost cried when I read it. Probably because lately I have been worried that I don't know what I need to be teaching Allie as she is becoming older and more aware and understands more. I have been worried that I am not ready for more than just a baby (who's needs are mostly physical because they don't understand a lot) Reading this article helped me figure out the most important things I need to teach my kids. Here is what I decided:

1. How important prayer is (teach by example)
2. Jesus Christ's atonement
3. The Plan of Salvation (that we are children of our Heavenly Father)
4. We can be together forever as a family if we are obedient and live the gospel.

This article talks about a lot more, and gives good advice for parents with children who have strayed. I hope that my kids will love the gospel and live it. That is the most important thing to me. I don't care if they don't do well in school or don't have any great talents, I just care that they are righteous and caring people who treat others with respect and have a strong testimony.

The Suffering of the Righteous

Well, I am finally back to my everyday scripture study, after weeks of weird schedules on vacation and preparing for my lesson last week. Today I am reading Alma chapter 14...


I am a little worried. Yesterday there was a comment made during the lesson about how sometimes when you attend the temple your family may not be safe and it doesn't mean you are a bad person. Then, today the first thing that jumped out to me from my manual on chapter 14 was the section about how bad things happen to good people ("The Suffering of the Righteous.")


I really hope that the Lord isn't trying to prepare me for something...


Alma 14:8-11 Talks about how Alma and Amulek had the power to bring down punishment on the men who killed the believers of God, but didn't because he said that God permits the righteous to suffer for a purpose.


It says this in my manual:


"...if all sick were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. If pain, sorrow, and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil-all would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, no Satanic controls...no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or death...an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life. and godhood.

Temporal and Spiritual Knowledge

Alma 12:10 "...he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him it is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full."

I had cross referenced D&C 130:18-19

"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come."

I have been wondering about this lately...with my limited amount of time to study, I am sometimes torn between reading to increase my temporal knowledge and reading the scriptures. I searched "knowledge" on lds.org for some answers. The first 24 articles about knowledge were spiritually related, here is what #25 said (New Era > February 1972 Q&A's):

“Is religious education more important than academic education?”

"...we cannot neglect our academic learning if we are to follow the counsel of the Lord...The academic knowledge we gain will benefit us in our temporal pursuits but the knowledge we gain of spiritual and eternal truths will prepare us to live happily in this life and throughout eternity in the kingdom of God. Our eventual goal is to gain all knowledge necessary to be like our Eternal Father. We can move in that direction only if we devote our energies and abilities to gaining knowledge of God and his laws and incorporating into our lives eternal truth wherever it is found."

So, from this I am feeling that I should use most the time I have gaining spiritual knowledge, but when I can I should also try to gain more temporal knowledge, especially that will benefit me and my family in this life.

Heritage Park

Today Cindy (my mom-in-law) took me and Allie to Heritage Park (This is the Place Memorial) and we walked through the Pioneer Village and such...It was really neat! You can really feel the spirit there and it really opens your eyes to the way people lived back then. We walked into most of the homes (which were mostly replicated) and talked to the people reinacting to learn more about the early settlers of Salt Lake Valley down to just past Nephi.

The best house we went into was the house of ancestors of Marjorie Hinkley's (Cindy knew this because she knows a lot about church and family history.) There was a cute old lady sitting inside that told us to come in and she would tell us more about the house. She was excited to tell us that her father was born inside the house and that her family had helped rebuild it after they transported the remains from a town outside of Nephi. So of course we asked her if she was related to Marjorie Hinckley and she is her sister! She goes up to the park just on Fridays to tell people about the house and because she loves being there. She was so sweet and told us some of the stories of the family that traveled to the Valley.

At the front of the park is where the big statue is there is a scripture from Isaiah that is also found in Nephi 12:2 "And it shall come to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it..."

I always wondered if that was talking about the Salt Lake Temple, and I think that it is...this, in a way, confirmed it for me. When I read that and thought about the pioneers and all they went through to get to Utah and build the temple I just wondered what they would think if they saw Utah right now. Would they be excited and happy about how many people are here now and how the church has grown? Would they see all the wickedness here and wonder how it got so bad? I just wonder, and I hope that they can see all the good and growth that has come from the sacrifices they made. I have a real appreciation for the early members of the church, and I hope that I am living my life the way they hoped their future generation would.

Know the Lord

Mosiah 26: This chapter focuses on a couple different topics. I liked reading the scriptures 24-28 and the manual's interpretation of them. It talks about knowing the Lord, which is something that has been hard for me to grasp. I feel like I could never REALLY know the Lord until I meet him and see him. Here is what the manual says:

"The kind of knowing referred to in these scriptures involves obeying the Lord's commandments and becoming like him"

Elder Bruce R. McConkie said "To know God in that full sense which will enable us to gain eternal salvation we must...obey those laws that will enable us to acquire the character, perfections, and attributes that he possesses. And before we can obey those laws, we must learn what they are; we must learn of Christ and his gospel..."

This makes a lot of sense. The only way we can truly know the Lord is by studying His teachings and obeying his commandments. It seems like every time I am wondering what I need to be doing to please the Lord the answer is always those same primary answers: read the scriptures, pray, go to church, love one another, etc. But, they really are the answers! The gospel is simple! We just need to do the things we know we should be doing!

For some reason our internet wasn't working yesterday...

2 Ne. 32:3 - "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, wherefore they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore I say unto you feast upon the words of Christ, for behold the words of Christ will tell ye all things that ye should do."

This was my scripture to think about yesterday...notice how it says the words of Christ will tell you ALL things that you should do. Not just SOME things or not just the IMPORTANT things. The scriptures really can give us the answers to ALL of our problems, especially with the help of the Holy Ghost and the power of prayer.

Today in church I got little tidbits of each lesson (since I was out in the hall most the time with Allie) But, I noticed that I heard little tidbits of things I had been thinking about a lot lately and things that I needed to be reminded of. In Relief Society I was reminded of how blessed we are in these latter days and that I need to be more grateful for my extremely fortunate circumstances. In Sunday School we learned about temples while reading in D&C a lot about the Kirtland temple...there are around 139? temples now!! I was reminded that I need to go as much as I can to do the ordinances for the dead, but to also bless and strengthen my family. In sacrament meeting we had two really good speakers. The first talked a lot about teaching -knowing what we are teaching and loving those we teach. The second talked about service. He talked about how living the gospel is a lifelong process...the church is like a school. In my ward of the elderly and newleyweds he said some here are almost ready to graduate, while others have just begun. I just thought that was an interesting way to look at it.

I have been in such a tired, annoyed, and frustrated mood today...I literally had no time to do anything until now...I was feeling like the last thing I wanted to do was read my scriptures. I opened them up and noticed my patriarchal blessing in the front of them. I decided I would read that today as my scripture study since I desperately need a nap and only have a minute...As soon as I started reading it a feeling of peace came over me and I knew that everything that has been frustrating today doesn't matter. Keeping an eternal perspective is the best way to not let the little things get to you. I love the gospel.